Transforming the Army with Mission Command - Consideration of Kotter's Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change, Creating a Framework for Command Philosophy

The Army's 38th Chief of Staff, General Raymond T. Odierno deemed mission command as important and necessary in order for the Army to succeed in the future. This research looked at the Army's command philosophy of mission command and analyzed the current doctrine that outlines how leaders should instill mission command within their organizations. In doing so, this research examined the Army's plans and processes for implementing mission command through the lens of a well-respected scholarly model of organizational change. The reason for scrutinizing the mission command implementation plans against a well-respected scholarly model of change was to determine if there were processes that could improve the Army's current implementation plans. The main research question was: Can the Army improve their plans for inculcating mission command throughout the total force by using Kotter's Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change? The secondary research questions were: Why mission command? What is the Army's plan to inculcate mission command? How does the Army's plan for implementing mission command compare when assessed against the processes of Kotter's Eight-Stage Process? Based on Kotter's process, can the Army do better with defining and inculcating mission command? Based on the research, the author was able to create a framework that can be utilized by the United States Army for further development and inculcation of the command philosophy of mission command. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION * Background * Purpose * Issues * Problem * Research Questions * Primary Research Question * Secondary Questions * Assumptions * Limitations * Scope and Delimitations * Significance of this Study * CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW * Introduction * Chapter Organization * Command Philosophy of Mission Command * ALRM * Operations Process * Kotter's Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change Summary and Conclusions * CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY * Introduction * Research Methodology * Summary and Conclusion * CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS * Introduction * Chapter Organization * Research Question * Primary Research Question * Secondary Research Questions * Summary and Conclusions * CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS * Purpose * Chapter Organization * Summary of Findings * Interpretation of Findings * Recommendations for Further Study * Recommendations for Actions * Summary and Conclusions * GLOSSARY * REFERENCE LIST